The Web 2.0 tools and services that are making socializing, networking, and communicating in general so easy are also making group projects seriously simple. With the judicious use of a few of the popular tools that use Web 2.0 technologies and philosophies, one can collaboratively create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, websites, project…

It is tempting to assume that we know what our parents, our community, and our employees want from our schools. It is comforting to think that we know what they support. It is also dangerous. This article encourages school systems to let go of assumptions and to start asking the important questions that will lead school boards and administrators…

This year's "School Library Journal's" spending survey showed that, despite the recession, the vast majority of media centers around the country have retained their credentialed media specialists. For example, almost 85% of elementary schools and more than 95% of middle and high schools have a full-time certified librarian. In addition, salaries…

Discusses network denial-of-service attacks which have become a security threat to the Internet community and suggests the need for reliable authentication protocols in client-server applications. Presents a public-key based authentication and key establishment protocol coupled with a client puzzle protocol and validates it through formal logic…

Discussion of the Internet 2 Initiative, which is based on collaboration among universities, businesses, and government, focuses on the Access Grid, a Computational Grid that includes interactive multimedia within high-speed networks to provide resources to enable remote collaboration among the research community. (Author/LRW)

Describes the development of a task-based framework for providing learning within the workplace using networked multimedia. Builds on the recognition that tasks must reflect the social process of learning as considered by Vygotsky and takes into account the role of dialogue in the building of knowledge for an individual and for a group.…

Provides information on commercial connections to the Internet via gateways as opposed to direct connection or through a modem. Hardware and software requirements are described; and commercial online services offering an Internet gateway are discussed, including America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, GEnie, and Prodigy. (LRW)

Discussion of Internet Gopher databases highlights the Gopher developed for AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology). Highlights include access information; guide to the AECT Gopher; access statistics, including international contacts; and future plans. (LRW)

Reviews four key Internet sites that offer environmental health research data, grant programs, environmental education resources, networking, and other environmental information. Provides addresses and brief descriptions of the resources. Discusses methods for making queries. (LZ)

Identifies key network indicators that enable the provider of telecommunications service to track and monitor daily network performance and its impact on network users. Network response time, including host- and device-based conditions, circuit and hardware conditions, and CRC (cyclic redundancy check)/link errors; indicator measurements and…

Advantages of using online systems are described, and specific techniques for successfully transmitting computer text files are described. Topics covered include Microsoft's Rich TextFile, WordPerfect encoding, text compression, and especially encoding and decoding with UNIX programs. (LB)

Discussion of networked information retrieval and the interoperability of heterogeneous information-retrieval systems shows how differences concerning search operators and database schemas can be handled by applying data-abstraction concepts in combination with uncertain inference. Highlights include data types, data independence, schema…

Discusses how colleges are struggling with an increasing number of attacks on their computer systems; as attacks increase, they face tough, expensive challenges in keeping intruders out. (EV)

Examines the need for power reliability when educational facilities incorporate communications infrastructures. Telecommunications equipment placement and environmental conditions are addressed, as are the integrating of cable trays and conduit systems, developing surge-suppression, and building grounding systems. (GR)

Discusses the need for a clear understanding of electronic networks for the effective use of online and Internet resources; describes some of the obstacles to effective learning inherent in these systems and in the conceptual tools users bring to their understanding; and considers metaphorical explanations and possible applications to Internet…